One Day
by bookworm26
Summary: Hermione visits Ron in the hospital wing during ‘Elf Tales’. Spoilers for HBP abound!


One Day

Summary- Hermione visits Ron in the hospital wing during 'Elf Tales'. Spoilers for HBP abound!

Disclaimer- I own nothing. The characters, settings and all mentioned events belong to the genius that is Jo Rowling.

Hermione sat by Ron's bed in the hospital wing, twisting her fingers. Harry and Ginny had gone to Quidditch practice and Hermione had managed to sneak up to the hospital wing without Lavender Brown suspecting where she was going. The last thing she needed was Lavender interrogating her reasons for seeing Ron.

Hermione sighed as she continued to stare at Ron's sleeping form. He looked so peaceful. Breathing deeply, Hermione put her head in her hands, wondering why on earth she was there.

She hadn't spoken to Ron for weeks. Yet, when Hermione heard he had been poisoned she ran as fast of her legs could take her to the hospital wing. It broke her heart to think that they were arguing when he could of died and the last words she said to him where very unpleasant. But ever since he started going out with Lavender, it wrenched her heart even to look at him. To see that he had chosen Lavender instead of Hermione.

Ron stirred, twisting his head to the left.

"Er-my-nee." He muttered quietly for the second time in two days. Hermione looked at him and stood up. "I'm here." She said softly, placing her hand on top of his.

At this touch, Ron's eyes flickered open. "Hermione?" He said groggily. Hermione smiled slightly, all resentment gone. "Yeah, it's me." Ron swallowed and looked around at where he was. "What happened?" He asked, trying to sit up.

"You were poisoned, accidentally." Hermione said, putting a hand on his chest to prevent him sitting up. "Do you remember anything?"

"I remember eating chocolate cauldrons and then – Agh – they had love potion in them. I took the antidote and then – black." Ron replied looking disgusted. Hermione smiled, sitting on the edge of his bed. "That's pretty much it. Your mead, or Slughorn's mead, was spiked. If it wasn't for Harry- "Hermione drifted off, her eyes filling up with tears.

"What's wrong?" Ron asked, looking a tad uncomfortable. "I'm sorry. It's just – If anything happened to you and we weren't talking – " Hermione choked, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "But I'm ok." Ron replied.

"You nearly weren't. You don't know how close you were to dying. If Harry didn't know about that Bezoar thing…"She stopped, tears still dripping from her eyes.

"I think I need to say something. To apologise." Ron mumbled, looking at his hands. Hermione looked him in the eye. "I've been acting like a prat. And the truth is, the only reason I've been doing it is because I was upset…with you…for kissing Krum."

Ron said quietly.

Hermione glared at him. "How- How did you – What – " She stuttered, blushing furiously. "Ginny told me." _Oh, I'm going to kill that Girl_.

"She and I got into an argument because I caught her snogging Dean and we yelled at each other until she blurted out that you kissed Krum. I'm sorry. I know that's no excuse for how I treated you, but I was hurt and – " Ron rambled.

"Hurt?" Hermione interrupted, looking furious. "Hurt? You want to know about hurt? Try looking at you and Lavender for the past 4 weeks. You have no idea how much that hurt. To see you kiss her in front of everybody. To see her glare at me if I so much as looked at you. Yes Ron, tell me about being hurt." Hermione finished, her voice low.

Ron looked ashamed. "I'm sorry." He repeated.

Hermione didn't answer him, but continued to look at her fingers.

"I miss you." Ron said softly after a few moments, his cheeks flushing. Hermione looked up and him, her face softening. "I miss you too." She replied just as quietly.

They sat in silence for a few moments before Hermione spoke up.

"I – uh – I've got to go. Homework." She said, standing up. Ron looked disappointed, but nodded.

"Oh – I didn't get to say Happy Birthday to you." She pulled out a small box from her pocket. "Happy birthday, Ron." Hermione said softly, leaning over and kissing him on the cheek. She looked at him and hurried out of the hospital wing.

Looking shocked, Ron opened the box. On a padded pillow was a collectors Chudley Cannons badge. Ron stared at it, his heart swelling.

He looked at the place where Hermione was just standing and smiled. One day he would tell her how much he loved her. One day.


End file.
